Fox Hills boasts world's largest Army hospital

Advance Archive PhotosMembers of the nursing staff at Fox Hills Army Hospital in 1921. The complex of 87 buildings held 62 wards with 50 beds each.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Although he named his estate Fox Hills Manor after the pleasures of the hunt, Lewis Henry Meyer couldnt have known that the name Fox Hills would eventually describe a famous Army facility.

At the turn of the century, Fox Hills, encompassing parts of Clifton and Concord, was little more than a country hamlet with wooded trails, fishing ponds and the Islands first real golf course — the Fox Hills Golf Club.

Founded in 1900 with 200 members, the 18-hole private course boasted the finest links in the tri-state area. Club members had good reason to rejoice the following year when Sunday golf was legalized. Up until 1901, no sports were played on the Sabbath.

Duffers found Fox Hills challenging; especially the 13th hole, which was nicknamed Hells Kitchen. Numerous sand traps and Eibs Pond proved to be additional obstacles for even the best of golfers.

During the teens, the clubs reputation grew as prestigious regional tournaments like the Metropolitan Association Golf Championship were played there.

But the name Fox Hills took on a whole new meaning and prominence during the first World War, when Hoff General Hospital No. 41 was build adjacent to the golf club with a capacity for 3,000 patients.

The Fox Hills Golf Course, foreground, remained in operation until 1935. The army hospital, buildings at rear, closed in 1922 but was reactivated during World War II as a training post and POW camp.

The Fox Hills Base Hospital, as it became known, was constructed in a record four months in 1918 at a cost of $2 million. When finished, the facility was the largest Army hospital in the world.

The complex of 87 buildings held 62 wards with 50 beds each. The facility was served by three miles of interconnected covered wooden walkways with amenities like a barber shop, billiards room, general store and 2,000-seat theater.

The hospital operated until 1922, when its remaining patients were transferred from Fox Hills to Sea View Hospital.

Meanwhile, despite the continuing popularity of the Fox Hills Golf Club, the Depression and rising property fees brought about the demise of the club in 1935.

Fox Hills Camp was reactivated during World War II when an Army training post and POW camp were established along Vanderbilt Avenue.

Subsequently, these barracks became makeshift homes for scores of returning veterans who were confronted with a severe housing shortage in the late 1940s and early 1950s.